"Reclaim the Future" is a 2 year European project that brings together partners from Sweden, Portugal, France, Scotland and Latvia. Inspired by the theme of the Carnivals and the change that they allow for, the project aims at giving voice to several european peripheries, finding ties bewtween arists and communties geographicaly distant from each other.

The “Reclaim the Future” event in Portugal, “Exige o Futuro”, was created by Visões Úteis in a coproduction with Porto’s City Council, through the “Expanding Culture” programme. It was inspired by the company’s long relationship with Porto’s area of Campanhã – the most eastern part of the city, and one that faces many economic and social challenges.

The Portuguese event, which happened on the 13th, 14th and 15th of july 2017,  aimed at giving public visibility to the work of agents, entities, collectives and associations of Campanhã, as well as to promote the meeting of these groups between themselves and with international groups and artists that develop similar work.

The first day was fully dedicated to a conference entitled “Of the same sort” held at MIRA Art Gallery. Artists, researchers and members of local communities gathered during the morning and afternoon to discuss the nature, purpose and results of art developed within a community context. The conference was simultaneously translated into English, to allow for the participation of all international partners.

Day 2 of the Portuguese event was divided into two activities:

“Europe is here” – a series of meetings between the international partners and local agents (artists, entities, associations) developing their projects in Campanhã area. The “matches” were made taking into consideration the similarity of interests and projects of both sides.

“Renewing the Piece” – the two plays exchanged between Visões Úteis and Swedish partner Teatermaskinen were publicly presented on this evening: Visões Úteis’s adapation of the Swedish show “C’est Tout”, based on a text by Marguerite Duras, and Teatermaskinen’s version of Visões Úteis’ original play “trans/mission” (presented in its English version).

And finally, on day 3, the central moment of the whole event took place – the “Unleashed Parade”! Created with and by the local communities during the previous months, the Parade was a two-hour long path across a public space, involving the participation of around 200 people living and/or working in Campanhã. A path filled with music, dance, theatre, space interventions, designed to highlight the different talents of all the participants, and recuperate the joy of meeting, and of sharing a common space.

In the year following this Carnival, a variety of activities included in “Exige o Futuro” will continue to be developed, such as a documentary video, a grant for community projects, a book, a Social Cartography workshop, among others.

 Artistic and technical team